Infancy and Childhood Flashcards
What is the visual acuity of an infant?
Very nearsighted
•About 20/800
Define Preferential Looking Procedure
A study type used by Fantz to research infant’s visual preferences
•Infants were placed on back with two different pictures above and eye movement was recorded
•Infants like complex patterns and the human face
How long does it take for a baby to learn to recognize it’s mother’s face?
72 hours
•Distinguish mother from female stranger
Can newborns learn through classical and operant conditioning, as well as imitation?
Yes
•Through operant conditioning newborns learn that they can make things happen
What is an example of a U-shaped functions? Why might this happen?
Sound Localization
•Ability for infants to turn towards sounds disappears at 2 months ant returns at 4 to 5 months
Stepping Reflex
•Stops around 1 to 2 months and reappears at 12 months
Might happen because
•Lack of practice, interest that is captured by visual targets, change in how the behaviour is controlled in the cortical structures
Define Maturation
a genetically programmed, biological process that governs our growth. Causes our bodies and movement to develop rapidly during infancy and childhood
Define Cephalocaudal Principle
the tendency for physical development to proceed in a head-to-foot direction
•The reason why babies heads are extra large
Define Proximodistal Principle
the principle that physical development begins along the innermost parts of the body and continues toward the outermost parts
•The arms develop before the hands and fingers
What percent of adult brain weight does a newborn have?
A six month old?
A 5 year old?
Newborn: 25%
6 month: 50 %
5 year: 90%
According to Piaget, cognitive development results as an interplay between what?
When does cognitive development happen?
What are two key processes involved?
Maturation and experience
• Cognitive development occurs as we acquire new scheme and as our existing schemas become more complex
•Assimilations (trying to understand new experience with what we know) and accommodation (modifying thinking when we don’t know)
Define assimilation
in cognitive development, the process by which new experiences are incorporated into existing schemas
Define accommodation
the process by which new experiences cause existing schemas to change
What are the 4 stages of Piaget’s Model of Cognitive Development ?
- Sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 years)
- Preoperational (2 - 7 years)
- Concrete operational (7-12 years)
- Formal operational (12 years and on)
Define sensorimotor stage
in Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development in which children understand their world primarily through sensory experience and physical (motor) interaction with objects
Object permanence
the recognition that an object continues to exist even when it can no longer be seen
•Strts at around 8 months
Preoperational stage
in Piaget’s model, a stage of cognitive development in which children represent the world symbolically through words and mental images, but do not yet understand basic mental operations or rules
•They can better anticipate the consequences of their actions
•Think about past and future, and label objects same or different
•Play pretend
Conservation
What is this due to?
the principle that basic properties of objects, such as their mass or quantity, stay the same (are “conserved”) even though their outward appearance may change
•Not understood by preoperational children
•Irreversibility : difficult for children to reverse an action mentally
• Centration: The focus on only one aspect of the situation, such as height of liquid
Egocentrism
Difficulty in viewing the world from someone else’s perspective
At the end of the sensorimotor period what can the child do?
Acquired language (age 1)
Thinkers who can plan,
form simple concepts and solve some problems mentally
Communicate thoughts to others
Concrete operational stage
In Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development during which children can perform basic mental operations concerning problems that involve tangible (i.e., “concrete”) objects and situations
•easily solve conservation problems
•Serial ordering
•mental representation of a series of actions
What do concrete operational children have problems with?
Hypothetical problems
Problems requiring abstract reasoning
They have rigid types of thinking
Formal Operational Stage
in Piaget’s theory, a period in which individuals are able to think logically and systematically about both concrete and abstract problems, form hypotheses, and test them in a thoughtful way
In what major ways does research support and contradict Piaget’s basic ideas?
Support
1. Occur in the same order across cultures
Contradict
1. Children acquire many cognitive skills and concepts at an earlier age than Piaget believed (Object permanence at 3.5 to 4.5 months)
2. Cognitive development is not all in one stage at one time
3. Culture influences cognitive development (Social vs intellectual)
Zone of proximal development
the difference between what a child can do independently, and what the child can do with assistance from adults or more advanced peers
- Helps recognize that children will soon be able to do it on their own
- Emphasizes that people can help move a child’s cognitive demanding speech
What does Lev Vygotsky study?
The sociocultural context interactions with the brain’s biological maturation
Theory of Mind
Beliefs about the “mind” and the ability to understand other people’s mental states
•Happens around 4 years for most, almost all for 6 years
At what age do infants begin to develop a sense of self?
18 months
•recognize themselves in mirrors
•Stage of envy, embarrassment, empathy
At what age do children display guilt?
Age 2
They also begin to display pride and shame
emotion regulation
the processes by which we evaluate and modify our emotional reactions
•Reducing stress by sucking thumb, or clinging to mom, or talking to other people
Temperament
a biologically based general style of reacting emotionally and behaviourally to the environment
•Typically stable from infancy
What is behavioural inhibition?
Shyness which forms more general temperament styles
•Infants are quiet and timid
•Cry and withdraw in new situations
•High behavioural inhibition is stable across first 3 years of life
•Light inhibition is not correlated with anything in particular
Psychosocial stages
a sequence of eight developmental stages proposed by Erikson, each of which involves a different “crisis” (i.e., conflict) over how we view ourselves
What psychosocial Crisis happens in year one? Explain
Basic trust vs. Basic mistrust
•Depends on how adequately we are shown love and attention
•develops our trust or mistrust of the world
What psychosocial crisis happens from year 1-2? explain?
Autonomy vs shame and doubt
•Ready to exercise individuality
•If given harsh demands then they will lack courage to be independent
What psychosocial crisis happens from year 3-5? explain?
Initiative vs guilt
•Freedom to explore and receive answers to questions they develop initiative
What psychosocial crisis happens from year 6-12? explain?
Industry vs inferiority
•Industry develops in a child experiences pride and achievement in mastering skills
- A striving to achieve
What psychosocial crisis happens from year 12-20? explain?
Identity vs role confusion
What psychosocial crisis happens from year 20-40? explain?
Intimacy vs isolation
What psychosocial crisis happens from year 40-65? explain?
Generativity vs. Stagnation
What psychosocial crisis happens from age 65+? explain?
Integrity vs Despair
Imprinting
in some species, a sudden, biologically primed form of attachment
•Goslings imprint on first large thing seen after birth
•Happens in some bird species
•Has a critical period
Attachment
When is the sensitive period?
the strong emotional bond that develops between children and their primary caregivers
•First few years of life
What is contact comfort>
Body contact with a comforting object
•More important in attachment than nourishment
What are the three phases of attachment in infancy as proposed by Bowlby?
- Indiscriminate attachment
• Newborns emit behaviours of smiling crying and vocalizing towards everyone - Discriminante attachment
•Around 3 months, infant attachment is toward familiar caregivers - Specific attachment behaviour
•7 or 8 months. Caregiver becomes “secure base” and the infant can explore and crawl in environment
Stranger Anxiety
distress over contact with strangers that typically develops in the first year of infancy and dissipates in the second year
Separation Anxiety
distress experienced by infants when they are separated from a primary caregiver, peaking around age 12 to 16 months
•Inverted U shaped function
Goal Corrected Partnership
•Children and caregivers describe their feeling to each other and maintain their relationship whether they are together or apart
Strange Situation Test
a standardized procedure for examining infant attachment whereby an infant first plays with toys in his or her mother’s presence and then is observed in the presence of a stranger
What are the 4 types of child0 rearing?
Explain?
What is this model based on?
- Authoritative
•Warmth and restrictive
• Demanding, but caring; good child-parent communication - Authoritarian
• Hostility and restrictive
• Assertion of parental power without warmth - Indulgent
• Warmth and Permissive
• Warm toward child, but lax in setting limits - Neglectful
•Hostile and Permissive
• Indifferent and uninvolved with child
Warmth vs Hostility
Permissive vs Restrictive
Authoritative parents
caregivers who are controlling, but warm; they establish and enforce clear rules within a caring, supportive atmosphere
Authoritarian Parents
caregivers who exert control over their children but do so within a cold, unresponsive, or rejecting relationship
•Most positive childhood outcomes
Indulgent Parents
caregivers who have warm and caring relationships with their children but do not provide much guidance and discipline
Neglectful Parents
caregivers who provide neither warmth, nor rules, nor guidance
Gender Identity
the sense of “femaleness” or “maleness” that is an integral part of our identity
•Children do not develop a basic gender identity until age two or three
Gender Constancy
the understanding that being male or female is a permanent part of a person
•Develops around age six or seven
Sex role stereotypes
beliefs about the types of characteristics and behaviours that are appropriate for boys versus for girls
Socialization
the process by which we acquire the beliefs, values, and behaviours of a group
•Shapes gender identity and sex-role stereotypes
Sex typing
treating others differently based on whether they are female or male
What is androgynous gender identity?
Masculine and feminine traits are blended into a single person, as when a person is both assertive and compassionate
preconventional moral reasoning. What are the 2 stages?
in Kohlberg’s stage model, moral reasoning based on anticipated punishments or rewards
Stage 1: punishment/obidence orientation
Stage 2: Instrumental/Hedonistic orientation
•Decreases with age
conventional moral reasoning
What are the 2 stages?
moral judgments that are based on conformity to social expectations, laws, and duties
stage 3: Good child orientation
stage 4: Law and Order orientation
•Increases with age
Postconventional Moral reasoning
What are the 2 stages?
moral judgments are based on a system of internalized, well-thought-out moral principles
stage 5: Social contract orientation
stage 6: Universal ethical principles
•In adolescent and even adulthood, it is relatively uncommon